Chapter 55 Light a lamp to illuminate the corpse

The gray sky began to darken and night came quietly.

Everyone stood in front of the door of the mourning hall. All they could hear was the howling wind. The hall seemed very quiet.

Lu Bubu's ear was pressed against the closed door at the entrance of the mourning hall: "Hey! Brother, what should we do!"

Shi Xiaoyin pulled him away and said, "What's the noise? It's just a zombie. Get out of the way." As she said that, she unscrewed the door latch and kicked open the two doors.

The moment the door opened, a pungent stench of corpse mixed with the smell of blood hit my nose.

The mourning hall was in a mess, with the altar and benches lying in a mess on the ground. The ground was covered with mottled dark red bloodstains, and there were chicken feathers blown by the wind.

Xie Liang followed Xu He and walked towards the coffin in the main position.

The old woman lying in the coffin had turned dark brown, covered in chicken feathers, and exuded a sickening stench of decay. The walls of the coffin were filled with a sticky, dark red liquid, and upon closer inspection, a dense mass of young maggots was wriggling within.

A wave of nausea surged into his heart, and Xie Liang couldn't help but turn sideways and retch.

Xu He helped Xie Liang relax his back and said, "The burial will be tomorrow morning."

"Ugh, ugh..." It was so disgusting that Xie Liang vomited out all the chicken soup he drank in the evening.

Seeing this, Xu He pulled Xie Liang to the side and lifted up a bench for Xie Liang to sit down.

Then, Xu He walked to the side, picked up the coffin lid that had fallen to the ground, and prepared to close the open coffin.

Shi Xiaoyin: "Wait a minute, let me take a look too."

"Sister, let's not get too close. Didn't you see that the guy was about to vomit?" Lu Bubu pulled Shi Xiaoyin who was walking forward.

Shi Xiaoyin pushed Lu Bubu away and said, "Sometimes I really want to slap you!"

After reading it, Shi Xiaoyin covered her mouth and ran to the door, bent her body and kept patting her chest. Seeing this, Lu Bubu went over and patted her back.

"We told you not to look but to listen. How about the old lady's mouth being closed?" Lu Bubu asked.

Shi Xiaoyin was almost slapped to death by him: "Stop... Stop! Let me catch my breath!"

After a while, Shi Xiaoyin nodded: "I didn't look closely, but the mouth is definitely not as wide as before." After saying that, she covered her chest and began to dry heave.

Huang Datong and Wang Li, who were standing nearby, found a place to lie down after hearing this.

"That means we should bury her tomorrow morning and we can go back," said Huang Datong.

"I don't know what happened to that fool Li Jianguo." said Wang Li.

Huang Datong said with disdain, "Either you go to the village and find him right now, or shut up. Who are you trying to show off to by pretending like this?"

"I don't want to bother with you." Wang Li said, shouting at the thin man with a very low presence, "Hey! Wang Zhiqiang, why don't you go find your brother?"

Wang Zhiqiang: "I won't go. Can't he hear the bell by himself when it rings? Why should I go and shout at him specially?" As he said that, he turned around and lay on his side on the bench, looking like he didn't want to talk anymore.

No one spoke anymore, and the mourning hall became quiet. Only the sound of the wind whistling outside could be heard.

After sitting for a while, Xu He walked to the big basket full of funeral supplies and found a pile of coffin ropes.

Together with Lü Bubu, he tied the coffin tightly with the coffin rope. After tying it, they found the coffin nails that the bereaved family had prepared in advance and hammered those long nails into the four sides of the coffin lid, sealing the coffin completely.

After they were done, Xie Liang lit a few incense sticks and inserted them into the incense burner on the altar, then lit the eternal lamp again and placed it on the coffin lid.

"I hope the burial goes smoothly." Xie Liang said.

Lu Bubu was sitting on a bench. Seeing this, he asked, "Young man, why are you still lighting that lamp?"

"The eternal lamp can only be blown out after the deceased is buried. This lamp can illuminate the deceased's path to the other world. I think it is better to light it than not to light it."

"That makes sense. Then let's burn those incense paper and paper money so that the old lady can become a rich person over there." Lu Bubu stood up and walked to the basket to take out the things to be burned.

As the night deepened, the brazier under the altar burned incense paper and paper money, and the temperature around slowly rose.

Lu Bubu felt sleepy, so he threw a stack of incense paper into the brazier and lay down on the bench, dozing off.

Listening to the whistling wind outside and the crackling sound of the thick incense paper burning in the brazier, Xie Liang felt sleepy and dozed off with his head nodding off.

Seeing this, Xu He gently placed his head on his shoulder, and they both sat on the bench to rest.

I don’t know how much time passed, but everyone, tired after a day of work, seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep.

Wang Li looked around at the quiet surroundings, got up from the bench quietly, and walked to Xie Liang's side with cat steps.

Xie Liang was leaning on Xu He's shoulder, looking like he was sleeping soundly.

Wang Li's gaze turned to the shoulder bag on Xie Liang's waist.

The shoulder bag was not zipped up, but was left open as Xie Liang sat, revealing the shape of the flute through the lining of the bag.

Wang Li stared at the flute closely, glanced at the two people who were still sleeping, and finally couldn't hold back anymore and reached out to the open shoulder bag at Xie Liang's waist.

Just as her hand touched the opening of the bag, Xu He suddenly opened his eyes and pinched her wrist.

Wang Li covered her wrist which was pinched and hurt, and struggled silently.

Xu He glanced at Xie Liang who was sleeping soundly on his shoulder, glanced sideways at Wang Li, and released the hand that was holding her.

As soon as Xu He let go, Wang Li, who was struggling, had no time to stop and staggered back a few steps, bumping into the coffin behind her.

The eternal lamp on the coffin shook a few times and then fell over. The oil in the oil lamp flowed along the curve of the coffin lid onto her clothes and seeped into the fabric.

Perhaps everyone was too tired these days and was not woken up by the not-so-weak sound.

Wang Li looked up at Xu He guiltily and found that he had withdrawn his sharp and warning gaze. Only then did she dare to carefully walk around Xu He and lie down on the bench where she had been lying originally.

The wind outside seemed to be blowing even stronger, making the door of the mourning hall creak.

Not long after Wang Li lay down on the stool, she smelled a strange fragrance. After a while, the fragrance became stronger and stronger, making it almost impossible for her to breathe.

When she wanted to get up and see what was going on, she found that she could not move her whole body. She rolled her eyes and tried her best to squeeze out a sound from her throat to call for help, but her throat seemed to be stuck with glue and could not make a sound.

She blinked in fear, hoping someone would notice her abnormality, but the only response she got was the wind coming in from outside and the faint light cast by the lantern swaying in the wind.

The rich fragrance made her eyes swell and hurt. She tried her best but couldn't make a sound, as if every part of her body except her eyes was petrified.

Just when she was about to be choked to death by the fragrance, a shadow slowly fell on the ground in front of her. Was someone coming? Wang Li blinked her eyes hard, hoping to attract the attention of the person coming.

The figure gradually walked to the ground in front of her. She was about to be rescued, and Wang Li finally breathed a sigh of relief.

But when she saw clearly a pair of feet standing on the ground, her heart was beating wildly with fear, her soul screamed but could not break the silence, and a fierce feeling of suffocation began to come over her.

Those legs didn't look like a living person at all. The dark, swollen calves were oozing with decaying fluid, and plump maggots were darting back and forth between the legs. Wang Li couldn't move or scream, and could only watch helplessly as the legs approached her...

At around six o'clock in the morning, Xie Liang was awakened by a scream.

When he woke up, he found that his head was resting on Xu He's shoulder. Xu He beside him had clear eyes and seemed to have woken up long ago. He hurriedly got up and walked towards the place where everyone was gathered behind him.

Seeing Xie Liang coming over, Lu Bubu quickly made room for him and pointed at Wang Li lying on the ground, saying, "Brother! She! She's hard!"

Wang Li's eyes had turned white, her limbs were stiff, and she maintained the posture of falling from the bench. She looked completely dead.

Huang Dayong looked unconvinced. "What the hell! Can anyone tell me what's going on? Wasn't she fine last night?"

Shi Xiaoyin: "We have to ask you this. Didn't you discover it first?"

"What did I find? I woke up with numb hands and feet. I walked a few steps in a daze, thinking of stretching myself, and accidentally bumped into her stool. She suddenly rolled off the stool! I was almost scared to death!" Huang Datong shouted.

There were large oil stains on Wang Li's clothes on her back. Xie Liang squatted down and smelled it, and a faint smell of kerosene wafted over.

"It's lamp oil." Xie Liang said and turned to look at the coffin.

The coffin was still tied tightly like last night, but the eternal lamp that should have been burning on the coffin lid had fallen over, and the lamp oil flowed along the edge of the coffin to the ground, forming a pool of oil on the ground.

Huang Datong looked at Xie Liang and asked, "Did she go to the coffin last night?"

Shi Xiaoyin was puzzled: "What is she doing there?"

At this time, Xu He came over and said, "You will suffer the consequences if you bring trouble upon yourself."

"Brother! What happened? How did she die?" Lu Bubu asked.

Xu He whispered, "Lighting a lamp to illuminate the corpse can brighten the way and warm the soul. The oil in the lamp is also called corpse oil, which is most precious to the dead soul. Her clothes were stained with a large amount of corpse oil, and the dead soul mistakenly thought she was here to steal the oil, so she appeared and took it away."

Everyone's gazes, initially bewildered and doubtful, gradually transformed into admiration and respect. Lu Bubu praised loudly, "As expected of you, brother. You really know a lot!"

Xu He said calmly, "It's recorded in the Chinese Funeral Data, I just happened to have read it."

No one cared about Wang Li who was already dead, and started preparing to carry the coffin up the mountain.

Xie Liang inserted the two coffin poles he had found into the knots on the coffin, and prepared to carry the coffin up the mountain with everyone else.

After discussion, he and Xu He were responsible for carrying the front, while Lu Bubu and Huang Datong were responsible for carrying the back.

Huang Datong bent down and put the coffin poles on his shoulders to test it. The coffin did not move. "Damn! It seems very heavy."

Upon hearing this, Lu Bubu lifted the coffin pole onto his shoulders and tried to lift the coffin up together with Huang Datong. They both exerted strength, and the thick coffin pole had been slightly bent by the rope knot, but the coffin remained motionless.

"Brother! Young brother! Ten old ladies can't possibly carry this weight. They can't lift it at all!" Lu Bubu shouted to the two people in front who were about to bend down to lift the coffin.

Afterwards, the four of them tried several times to lift the coffin but failed, so they had no choice but to give up.

Lu Bubu walked over to the bench and sat down: "Brother! What should we do?"

Xie Liang did not answer him, but lowered his head in thought.

After a while, Xie Liang said to the crowd, "Everyone, think carefully, have you ever attended someone else's funeral before? What are the procedures for the funeral?"